Leica, pmdtechnologies to develop 3D sensing cameras for mobile

Leica Camera and pmdtechnologies have announced a strategic partnership to develop 3D sensing camera solutions for mobile devices.

Under the partnership agreement, Leica will develop optimised lenses with compact dimensions for 3D depth sensing. The statement reads:

In the last few months, Leica designed a dedicated state-of-the-art optical lens for pmd’s recently announced new 3D depth sensing imager for mobile devices. By decreasing the f-number by 25% and simultanously decreasing the height of the pmd module by 30% to 11.5x7x4.2mm, the dedicated lens for pmd’s latest 3D ToF pixel and imager generation leads to a significant improvement compared to past lenses.

As the Leica lens is optimized for a wavelength of 940nm, it enables superior ambient light robustness. With a depth data accuracy of 1%, the system is expected to reach superior data quality and best-in-class performance despite the miniaturization of the pixel, imager and module sizes. First samples of the new lens will be available in May 2018.

Jochen Penne, Executive Board Member of pmdtechnologies ag, said: “The partnership between Leica and pmd has resulted in the most sophisticated and smallest optic design to date. The collaboration with Leica aligned perfectly with our mission to miniaturize 3D depth sensing without sacrificing data quality so that 3D depth sensing can be put into any device and make 3D depth sensing ubiquitous.

“We are looking forward to the mobile device opportunities, which the super-small 3D depth sensing modules with Leica’s optical lens will enable. We are more than happy that, with Leica, we found a top-class partner, to join us on this exciting journey.”